White

Oklahoma City-based independent White Star Petroleum LLC said Tuesday it is adding roughly 49,000 net acres to its position in the Midcontinent through three separate transactions.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Jesse White (D-Cecil), a frequent and controversial critic of Marcellus Shale development, defeated a challenger for his party’s nomination on Tuesday to the state House of Representatives.

Stakeholders in government and the private sector should support research, development and demonstration of new technologies that can reduce energy and water consumption in an effort to ease strains on both ends of the energy-water nexus, according to a white paper released by U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), the ranking Republican member of Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson said Thursday she will resign from that position after President Obama’s State of the Union speech next month, bringing to an end a sometimes tumultuous four-year tenure.

Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee have called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and White House to clarify language in a recent executive order creating an interagency working group on hydraulic fracturing (fracking).

Few companies have either energy or water strategies, and fewer still have integrated energy-water strategies — “a glaring omission” — according to a white paper issued Tuesday by a pair of independent advisers to Deloitte LLP.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Camille “Bud” George plans to retire at the end of the year. First elected in 1974, the Democrat from shale-rich Clearfield County, in the central part of the state, has been the top ranking Democrat on environmental issues since 1983. As Democratic Chair of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee (previously known as the House Conservation Committee) George recently became a critic of shale development. He proposed a 30 cent/Mcf severance tax on high-volume shale wells (among the highest rate offered by any lawmaker during the debates) and suggested that lawmakers shouldn’t be afraid to continue delaying passage of the bill if it did not contain “the protections that you and I want not only for ourselves, but for those that we represent.” George also claimed that the recommendations of the Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission didn’t go far enough to protect environmental resources in the state. His announcement follows news that Sen. Mary Jo White, the Republican chair of the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, will also retire this year.

In terms of oilfield services supply and demand conditions, Halliburton Co. CEO Dave Lesar sees the U.S. unconventional basins in black-and-white terms: oversupplied, undersupplied or neutral.

In terms of oilfield services supply and demand conditions, Halliburton Co. CEO Dave Lesar sees the U.S. unconventional basins in black-and-white terms: oversupplied, undersupplied or neutral.